Whitley- A Fallout-based Fanfiction
by LoneWandererLexi
Summary: In 2277, just before the Lone Wanderer exits the vault, the Enclave is already starting to prepare for their grand entrance. While they get ready to enter, a scientist named Whitley, who made the Enclave's eyebots, prepares to exit. Whitley must find his way to get his beloved ED-E to Navarro for an upgrade, but there's always a little trouble along the way.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One- 1/17/13-**_

The lab was dark and shadows creeped around the corners. Whitley tinkered with his electronics and began building yet another eyebot. Footsteps became clear and Whitley stopped in his tracks. Colonel Autumn opened the door to the lab looking disappointed. He glared at him without saying a word. Whitley peered over his glasses.

"Can I help you?" he said rather rudely.

"Yes, you can. We need to discuss the issue earlier with Doctor Grant." Autumn replies with a threatening tone in his voice.

Whitley feels anger pool up inside him. He's still outraged that she would do such a thing. He sits furiously as he waits for Colonel Autumn to continue. His face became hot and his mind became cluttered. Autumn finally broke the silence."Your methods don't make sense Whitley. What's so wrong with the fact that she tried to upgrade that eyebot of yours while it was still on? It's more efficient that way and the upgrades take less time."

"While he was still on? He was awake Autumn! She was hurting him!? Her methods don't make sense, she's torturing them! She's torturing ED-E!"

"Whitley you are a brilliant scientist, but Grant is right. The efficiency guidelines she requested got my approval. You'll have to upgrade the eyebots while they're 'awake' now."

"You gave this entire base the permission to hurt them?! What have you done, Autumn? I can work on them more efficiently when they're asleep, I can't do this while they're awake. This is unbelievable, these practices are medieval! You're a monster for doing this Autumn. It takes more time when they're awake and the percentage of failures increase to over fifty percent. If people are to operate on them they could corrupt the whole system by doing something wrong when there's no risk whe-"

Autumn cut Whitley off and began to leave. "Whitley they're just machines that can't feel anything. Obey these guidelines or I'll give this project and your ED-E to Grant."

Autumn shut the door and his footsteps grew quiet after a few minutes. Whitley turned to ED-E and woke him up. He was nearly in tears from the argument with Autumn a few moments ago. ED-E hovered and beeped facing Doctor Whitley's troubled face. Whitley stared at ED-E with a faint smile. Then his smile faded and was replaced by a blank stare. He began to get upset again.

"I can't believe it!" he began staring at this robot; his robot. "Grant actually went to Colonel Autumn and got approval for her damned "efficiency guidelines." All experiments will be carried out with the test subject fully active to reduce iteration time. It's barbaric. I'd explained this to the colonel, just because the eyebots don't have true AI doesn't mean they're just machines. I guess results are all that matter around here. Forget things like ethical procedures or humane treatment. I'm starting to have serious misgivings about leadership around here. At least I've got you to talk to, huh, ED-E? "


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two- 1/18/13-**_

Whitley awoke with a strange pain in his neck. He had fallen asleep with his face on his desk. He opened his eyes and saw ED-E buzzing about. ED-E beeped as if he were happy. Whitley smirked and turned on the television for him. ED-E hovered down onto the couch and faced the television. Whitley didn't care what Autumn or Grant had to say, these robots were alive to him, they were conscious. Or at least ED-E was. He had to be.

At them moment Doctor Grant opened the door with a box of supplies. She hesitated setting them down on his desk, but proceeded anyway.

"I'm sorry about earlier, David. I just had to get approval from Autumn. It's too time-consuming to upgrade them when they're active. I'm sure Colonel Autumn already explained everything, but just let it go Whitley. They'll be fine." Grant says.

Whitley senses it's been practiced and she's been waiting to say this for a while. He has always known she took him for an idiot, but now it seems more apparent than ever.

"Grant, I've already discussed this matter with Augustus, I'm not going to discuss it again."

Whitley stared scowling at Grant over his electronics. Grant looked disappointed that he did not answer her question. "I got you something," she said, "I found it and had it repainted for you." She hands him a small rectangular object wrapped in bits of scrap paper. Grant walked out of the office and left Whitley alone.

Whitley looked at the small package and reluctantly began to tear it open. Underneath the paper a red license plate was revealed. It read "2ED-E59" with "Great Midwest" inscribed in white at above it.

Whitley smiled a genuine smile. He went over to ED-E who was still happily beeping on the chair watching cartoons. He turned off the television and put ED-E to sleep after giving him a brief hug. ED-E had a weak spot he had discovered on his right side. Whitley grabbed a few tools and bolted the plate over ED-E's weak spot. He rubbed the plate to shine it a little and smiled yet again. His robot was now unique from the others. Everyone would know which one is ED-E.

Doctor Grant awoke with a start. The terminal in her room started beeping constantly, and

loudly. She rubbed her eyes and began to walk over to her desk. She entered the password and looked at the message. It was from Colonel Autumn and read:

"Adams Air Force Base Staff,  
All Enclave Eyebot Duraframe models(including Subject E) will be upgraded to the new Hellfire Armor. The armor is more efficient and can withstand being blasted by our enemies most powerful weapons. The shipment will arrive in around a week, please start preparing the robots and stripping off their old armor. Thank you for your cooperation, God bless America,and God bless the Enclave.  
-Colonel Augustus Autumn."

Grant was scared of how Whitley would react. He doesn't handle things like this well. A crash came from down the hall.

Grant was set into a panic, she threw on her lab coat, grabbed her reading glasses, and started running to where the noise came from. Enclave officers patrolled the halls up and down, but none of them seemed to be concerned with the noise coming from the lab. She reached the lab door to find it locked. She yanked on the door with no success and then tried to look inside.

Whitley was standing next to ED-E and seemed to be recording some sort of message. There were a few boxes full of what seemed to be his things and all of his work. He looked hurried and tried to record quickly. Grant saw broken glass on the floor and found the source of the crash. Beside the broken glass there was something sort of dark. Grant continued to stare at it, but couldn't place what it was. It was on the glass too, but the viewing window of the door stopped her from seeing the little piece of light brown next to the dark liquid. Suddenly it clicked in her head. It was blood, and that familiar brown she saw was Colonel Autumn's duster.

"Oh my God", Grant whispered to herself. She started banging on the door and telling Whitley to let her in. Whitley stopped the recording and grabbed a bag on his desk. He started throwing some of his things in and then turned off grabbed a larger bag with a blanket from the floor and put ED-E in it. He threw some of his clothes on top. He took off his lab coat and hung it up.

He scribbled something on a sheet of paper and then moved out of Grant's sight. She banged on the door as much as she could. Whitley still continued to ignore her. She ran around to the other door of the lab. She was hoping Whitley would go out that one. Instead no one was there and the entire corridor was deserted. She tried to open the door and discovered it was unlocked. He must've left when she ran over here, he can predict her so well. She walked inside and took a look at the paper Whitley had scribbled on. It was for her.

"Amy,  
I am leaving. Do not show this not to Autumn when he wakes up. I really hope to see you again. I want you to continue working on the eyebots, finish my work. I don't think I will ever return. I'm sending ED-E to Navarro, do not go looking for me and do not go looking for him. He'll return here eventually but he needs proper armor, unlike the "Hellfire Armor" Augustus loves so much. I'll visit sometime, Grant, but you cannot know my whereabouts until I'm far away from the Enclave. Again, don't show this to anyone, I just wanted to say goodbye and thought I should explain. My personal terminal password is "28135", no one else in this facility knows the password, don't go flailing this paper around.  
-David Whitley"

Grant stared at the note then lay her head down on his desk. She folded up the note and placed it in the pocket of her lab coat. Tears streamed down her face and dampened her long brown hair. She closed her eyes and fell asleep fearing she will never really see Whitley again.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three- 1/24/13-**_

Whitley rose from the makeshift bed he had found while walking last night. It had been four days since he had left Adams Air Force Base. He was still not used to sleeping outside and only slept for around an hour. He realizes no one ever sleeps safe in the Wasteland, and they probably never will. A small snarl comes from behind him and he quickly grabs the gun from under his bag and looks behind him. An ugly mutated creature stands before him. He identifies it as a molerat, for he had experimented on plenty. He shoots at it a few times, but the thing only got closer and the bullets hissed past it. Whitley then takes a deep breath and concentrates. He escapes his state on panic and repositions his 9mm. He aims and shoots at the molerat, which is now very close, two bullets hit it and an explosion of blood came from it's head. It fell down and lay there drowning in it's on blood. As much as Whitley hated it, he needed food. He grabbed the knife he had packed in his bag and approached the dead body. He knew he was going to regret this, but he slowly hacked off one of it's arms. His arms become soaked with blood and the sight was horrific. He had operated on humans and other animals before, but with the right tools it wasn't such a mess. He sawed down the bone and finally it gave out and he had got one leg free. He decided that was enough for now and grabbed his things.

Adams Air Force Base had just been a little outside of D.C. and he needed to get out of what is considered the Capital Wasteland. and get to the rumors of a functioning courier service down Utah or Arizona. He needed someone to bring ED-E to Navarro for this upgrade. He had said to Grant that he would rightfully return ED-E to the Enclave, but he still wasn't sure if he really would. He had a long walk ahead of him, but there were a few places he needed to go to before he had reached the courier outpost he had heard of. He needed to get to the Mojave Wasteland, which began in Colorado. Whitley assumed he was in Virginia or West Virginia right now but without a map or a Pip- Boy there was no way he could be sure. He placed the leg in a small container he had brought with and placed it in his bag. Carrying ED-E for so long was beginning to hurt him, but he could not take him out of the bag until the Enclave was far, far away.

Now that Whitley had his things he began walking to a road a little while a way from his had his gun ready in his hand, and his knife attatched to his belt. He had his hopes up to find a working monorail, train, or a car so his journey would go faster, but the chances were slim. Many cars were destroyed by the bombs, or have simply gotten too rusted and old to drive. And none of the subways beneath D.C. still worked, and he had no idea where he could even find a train. He needed fast transportation, armor, food, and a safe place to sleep. Only four days and the wasteland was trying to swallow him up, he had to keep fighting, he couldn't really be that far from the Mojave Wasteland, right?

Grant stared blankly at Colonel Autumn. Her face was covered in blood and he lip was split open. Her right eye was completely shut as a result of a swollen black eye. Grant was filled with anger, but relieve she burned the letter from Whitley. They would find nothing from her.

"We know you know where he went, Grant. You can't lie to us forever. We already ruined your pretty little face, but we can ruin much more." Autumn said looking at her with annoyed eyes. She's been imprisoned in the basement of Adams Air Force Base since they found out Whitley had left. Grant was almost to her breaking point, but she felt she had to stay alive. She still had to go to Whitley's terminal. He gave her the password for a reason, now she had to find out why. She was still staring at Autumn, full of rage now.

"I have told you, I know nothing." she said, almost screamed. She kept her eye contact the entire time, one false move and Autumn and his guards will know she's hiding something. So far, they were pretty convinced, but Grant knew it was only a matter of time before they discovered this. She hoped she could just keep a straight enough face so that didn't happen. The Enclave doesn't exactly have a nice reputation when it comes to liars.

"Amy, we can keep you here for as long as we like. Now did you see Whitley leave?" Autumn asked, growing even more impatient.

"Yes, I've already told you. I saw him leave the lab, that's it. I don't know anything else." Amy said as calmly as she could. Her anger continued to boil up with each question.

"How long have you known Whitley?"

"Six years, I think."

"And in these six years you became good friends, yes?"

"Yeah…?"

"And good friends tell each other secrets, yes?"

"I suppose…"

"Did Whitley tell you his terminal password?"

"Even I don't know that, Autumn."

"He's the only person in this entire base that is connected to our system. Do you know why, Grant?"

"I though you gave him permission to have his own private terminal, didn't you?"

"I certainly did not. Four years ago when he came to this base he hacked into our systems and disconnected his terminal. No one has been able to get it back for four years. That man's a genius, but he must have told someone his goddamn password. What is it?"

"I don't know."

"Officer, go ahead."

Grant screamed knowing what he meant from the previous time. She looked at the Enclave officer with her bright blue eyes in fear. The officer took his gun and butted her in the head with it. Her head flew back and she became unconscious. A long cut became apparent and blood oozed down the right side of her face. Grant was left alone in the room, tied to the chair still. Her beautiful face covered in blood and bruises, her wrists gnawed at by the ropes, and her eyes shut.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter Four- 2/27/13-**_

It had been around two weeks since Whitley had left. His shaggy light brown hair had grown and had a dusted tint to it. He had shaved his face in a lake earlier and he was fairly clear of stubble. His blue eyes had glazed grey and he had put on a few pounds of muscle. He had only encountered Raiders, Molerats, Boatflies, and Radroaches so far but he knew there were much worse things out there. He had stuck to the main route and it had been fairly safe. He had traveled with a caravan for a day but they had reached their destination by nightfall. Whitley had gotten hold of a map in the ruins of an old neighborhood. He is finally taking a rest for a day in the small remains of a town that was once Springfield. Only a few houses remained and only a few were occupied at all.

Whitley sat in the bench of the bar and drank his whiskey slowly. Just a small detour before he hit the roads again. He was hoping a courier service was closer than to all the way out in the Mojave. He had grown tired of walking and wasn't sure how long he would last. He took another swig or his whiskey and finished it off. He grabbed his things and left a few bottle caps on the table. Many people complained about not having enough caps, but Whitley had come across quite a bit just in his few days of traveling.

Whitley walked along the dusted, cracked roads hoping this journey would soon be over and he would find a cozy place ro  
live. He had worked in Adams Air Force Base for so long he had almost forgotten how dangerous it really was outside. A  
scream broke his thought. He spins around looking for a sign of where it came from. Another faint scream comes and he  
confirms the direction he must go.

David begins to run towards the small shack he sees in the distance. There's no visible people outside, so they must be  
inside. ED-E clanks against he hip, still inside of the duffel bag. Whitley grabs the bag and carries it with both hands. He runs until he is out of breathe and pauses at the house. He opens the door and tries to observe what is going on. The scream is getting closer, but he still can't find it's exact source.

Something behind him makes a strange noise. Whitley turns around quickly and sees a disorientated man in front of him. The man smiles, and then smacks Whitley in the head with the butt of his gun.

David woke up in a dark room, filled with the scent of musty rotten wood and something he just cannot put his finger on. A splitting headache ripped across his forehead and made itself apparent. Whitley suffered from headaches often, but this one was different. Faint shadows watched him in the distance, muttering something he was just slightly out of reach to hear.

Whitley realizes the girl screaming had been a trap, these people wanted him here for some odd reason. He assumes he already has a bounty on his head.

There's no way he was going to be caught so quick, though. Whitley needed to get ED-E to be safely sent to Navarro, like he promised Grant and Autumn, and he needed to get away from the Enclave for good. This was merely just a rest-stop and he  
would not let these people get in his way. He would escape when he had his chance, but with one hand handcuffed to the railing of some stairs, he's not going anywhere.

One of the people from the corner slowly walked over to him, a fairly curvy woman, who looked a little ill. She had bangs under her eyes and despite her curves, some of her body parts appeared painfully thin. Whitley was more skilled in robotics than medical services, but he tried to identify what was wrong with the woman. She was shaking a little, but it was fairly cold in the dark cellar, so he disregarded it. She had a weapon of some sort which she just moved close enough so he could see. She only had a small knife. It wasn't going to be a challenge to escape, but Whitley's worry was that the man still standing in the shadows had a gun.

"This is a nice one you found right here," the girl says in a rather annoying accent. She looks up and down him, inspecting him like a lion watching it's prey. Whitley remained fairly calm and this seemed to annoy the woman. She stuck the knife up to his throat and threatened to kill him sooner if he doesn't behave. She gestures to the man and they both exit the room, and another woman enters.

Unlike the two people before she looks rather healthy, which strikes Whitley as odd. She seems to just stare at him while she gathers some things in the grimy old room. Up the stairs another scream is heard. Whitley jumps, recognizing it is the same woman from earlier. It quickly becomes muffled and disappears, and the second lady hurries upstairs.

A few hours later the curvier woman comes back down and tosses David a hunk of cooked meat. He sniffs it curiously, not  
trusting his captors. Just a smell was all Whitley needed to know. He had been right all along, and these strange people were not Raiders, nor were they cold, they were cannibals.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Five- 3/2/13 -**_

The girl smacks Whitley when he throws the food on the floor and mutters something along the lines of "I knew we shouldn't of fed this one." She walks back up the stares and converses with the beefy male. They talk strange, with long pauses and stutters, probably caused by the "shakes" of their flesh-eating habits. Whitley only caught a few words but they seem to think they are in some sort of danger, and the man goes to check it out.

Almost immediately gunshots and screams are heard. Two huge masses hit the floor and cause a loud shake to rattle the house. The girl who was screaming begins to talk in a normal voice, David assumes he has been rescued. He quickly searches for the bag with ED-E in it. He had almost forgotten and is induced with panic as he realizes it is not by his side. Footsteps started rushing down the stairs, Whitley awaited his saviors and grinned a little.

A girl and a boy around the age of 20 stand back to back making sure the coast is clear. The boy grabs a key and tosses it at Whitley.

"I'm Look." the blonde boy says in a rather dulcet deep voice. The girl with the brown hair chimes in, "and I'm See." They stop twirling around the room looking for people and help David up.

"Rather strange names you have there?" Whitley puzzles.

"We came from a town full of little kids, when you pick a name you sort of stick with it the rest of your life." See says while looting the cellar.

"We're twins, so we had to pick something special. Look and See just had a nice ring to it. Now let's get out of here, do you know where they took your things, if you had any?" Look inquires.

"I can't seem to find my bag anywhere, I had a very important duffel bag." Whitley replies.

"There's still important things in this hellhole?" See says and chuckles.

Look gives her a frustrated glare, he seems to not like the impression See leaves on people. They look around the dark cellar and Whitley rubs his wrist, sore from the uncomfortable around five minutes See came back down the stairs with Whitley's bag.

"This it?" She asks as she tosses him the bag.

"Yes! Yes, thank you," Whitley begins, "Where are you two headed anyways?"

"Exploring mostly, we're mercs, but we sorta started this little justice and saving-people thing a while back."

"Do you guys want to travel with me for a while? I'm trying to find the nearest Mojave Outpost to deliver this package."

"I guess, do we have anything better to do, Look?" See questions looking at her brother across the room. He continues to go through an assortment of trinkets on a table. He looks over his shoulder at them and hesitates "no, I think we could definitely use a bit of a vacation from these parts of the wastes."

Look turns around and curves his lips into a small smile, he picks up a few more things and then gives the signal they should move out. See heads up the stairs, pushing the dead bodies out of their way. Whitley holds ED-E tightly to his chest, still shaking a little from worrying about him.

After a day full of walking and being kidnapped, Whitley and his two new companions settled down for the night in the ruins of an old grocery store. They had found a few beverages and weapons hidden in the back, but they were running low on Stims. Look and See discuss the last few people they had saved from a group of crazy wastelanders while Whitley attempts to start a fire. After a few tries, he finally gets it and settles down into his cot.

He unzips his duffel bag and gently takes ED-E out of it. Look and See go silent, marveling at the strange contraption. David presses a few buttons and turns ED-E on.

"Where'd you get that thing? I always see them around but they just shoot us." Look says, intrigued by the small robot.

"I built it." Whitley hesitates as he carefully repositions ED-Es antennae.

"You didn't work for those people, did you? I thought they were just full of shit."

"Oh, they are not lying at all. They are returning, and you better not be anywhere near them if you want to live."

Look gives Whitley a confused stare, and then returns back to lying on his cot. He sighs, causing the longer strands of his blonde hair to fly up. His sister sits beside him trying to craft some sort of weapon. She wears a concerned look on her face and her fairly thick eyebrows scrunch together in frustration. She finally sets it down and lies down on her dirty cot as well.

"Hey, Look, check this out." She says glancing up at the ceiling. She points and Look and Whitley's eyes follow. A small metal door is visible, leading up to some sort of loft. See stands up and pushes an ammunition box over. She stands on it and pulls down the hatch. A draft of dust flows in and causes Look, who was standing beside her, to choke.

"Dave, help me up, I wanna see what's up here." See demands as she tries to pull down a ladder that is obviously not cooperating. Whitley gives her a sideways look and corrects her about his name. He leans down and holds his hands under See's shoe. She jumps on one foot and Whitley pushes her up on the other. See grabs the grimy ledge of the wall and pulls herself into the room. Her footstep's quietly patter across the old floor, and she whispers a small "whoa."

Look finally stops coughing from the dust and looks up the hatch with Whitley. They watch and listen as See explores the small little loft. Look turns to Whitley as if to say something, but is cut off when a booming gunshot invades their ears. Look's blue eyes dilate in fear as a loud crash comes from above.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter Six- 3/5/13-**_

"Are you alright, See? See? Can you hear me?" Whitley begins in a state of panic, "I'm coming up, just hang on."

Whitley starts stacking the ammunition boxes while Look tries to help him build the makeshift stairs. A faint stumbling noise comes from above and Look begins calling for See again. See becomes apparent in the hatch hole in the ceiling and she staggers down and sits with her feet dangling off the ledge.

"Shit. I think there's a rigged shotgun up here." See says sickly as she holds her left side. Look smiles a little and asks her to jump down. David and Look stand directly below the hatch waiting for her to jump so they can treat her wound, but she hesitates and says "I have to get something first." Her voice is hoarse from pain and her tan skin has taken on a pale glow.

"No! You can't, get down here now! You're going to bleed to death!" Look shouts as she climbs back up into the room. Whitley steps onto their homemade stairs and joins see up in the loft. Look angrily disagrees, but follows as well. The dark room is musty and smells of dust and 200 year old decaying wood. Look starts choking on the dust yet again and pulls part of his green shirt up to cover his nose and mouth. See is in the distance grabbing something and holding her side still.

"What have you found?" Whitley asks, trying to make out what she is holding in the darkness. See is hunched over a desk, pulling something out of the drawers. Whitley walks closer to the desk while Look grabs something in the other side of the room. Whitley finally gets close enough and discovers See is pulling out dozens of files and Pre-War money from the drawers. See turns her head to him and quietly begins, "they're important," she takes a deep breath and puts her other hand on her side. "Trust me," she finishes in a small whisper. Both of her hands are covered in blood and she is still losing more. Look tosses something down onto the cots and then grabs what See wanted to bring. Whitley's head began throbbing, as it does too often, and sharp pains invaded his skull. He throws that down as well and walks over to help Whitley carry See.

They get her to the edge of the opening again and they both jump down. See cautiously falls off the ledge, hoping she'll land on her good side. Look and David catch her, but she passes out immediately when she lands. A small amount of blood splatters on both of the men and they set her gently down on her cot. Look moves the folders and things he tossed down out of the way and grabbed the few medical supplies they had.

"Tweezers? Do we have tweezers?" Whitley asks quickly, searching through his bag.

"Uh... no." says Look.

Whitley mutters "damn it" under his breathe and then takes off his lab coat he was still wearing. He rips open See's shirt where the wound is and pours a bit of water on it. He washes his hands with the water too, and then digs the bullet out with his bare hands. He's careful not to touch anything important, but he makes an utter mess. Her blood spills everywhere and stains the cots and the floor. Whitley gags, but finally gets a hold of the bullet. He carefully pulls it out and tosses it on the floor. He grabs some medical string he had the right mind to bring and pulls it through a needle.

He cleans some of the blood up and then quickly pulls the needle through he skin. He continues to sew her skin until it had finally closed up tight and fairly normal looking. "If she lost anymore blood she would have surely died, and she is definitely in critical condition right now," Whitley starts, "But, I believe she'll be okay. Do you have a bandage or something I can wrap her with?"

Look finds his bag of gear and pulls out a dirty bandage and says "this is the best I got." Whitley takes it and carefully rips off the rest of See's shirt, leaving her in her undergarments. He wraps the bandage around her stomach and new stitches carefully. Look mops up more of the blood on the floor with See's destroyed shirt. Whitley finishes fixing up her wounds and turns to Look. "I think we'll need a hell of a lot more Stims if we want to get on the roads again this week." he says while he washes the rest of the blood off of his hands.

Look tosses him the few they have left and grabs See a new shirt. She's still unconscious, so he places it on top of her. Look lies down on his cot, exhausted from a long day and the panic of See getting shot. Whitley presses the Stimpak into See's side, near her wound. He readjusts her shirt blanket, but then replaces it with his lab coat when he realizes it is much too short and she is cold. David's head still aches tremendously, but he finally stops playing nurse and takes a look at the files See had wanted so badly.

The majority of them were birth certificates and other assortments of papers. He simply could not find out what was so important about these. He searches through the other files. How to make weapons, slave trades, company shipments, memoirs, and even music sheets were in these files. Whitley takes a closer look and hopes to find why See wanted it so bad, and he finds exactly what he dreaded. At the very bottom of each sheet of paper was the Enclave emblem. This was a secret base of the one thing he had been trying to escape.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Chapter Seven- 3/5/13-_**

Grant sits in the lab and rubs her temples. She suffered from a headache, as she often did, but this one was one of the worst ones she's had. She logs into her computer and sends a quick message to Autumn that she is taking the rest of the day off. He's been awfully busy lately dealing with some issue with the Vault-Tec vaults, so she doesn't expect him to ever reply. As she exists she glances at the empty terminal on Whitley's old desk. She feels like she's forgetting something, but can't seem to remember. She shakes it off and walks to her quarters down the hall. She enters the small bathroom in her room and stares in the mirror. Her long hair was now much shorter, but Amy can't seem to remember what happened. The past few days were such a blur to her, she can hardly remember anything from them. She shrugs that feeling off again and goes back into the lab to retrieve her jacket she had left there.

Amy's terminal beeps signalling she received a message. With slightly shaking movements she holds the jacket and opens the message. It's just another one of Eden's announcements. She quickly turns off the terminal and stands back up. As she walks to the door again a sharp pain jolts through her skull and Grant falls to the ground. Her head hits the cold tile.

See walks about the small store, still looking pretty weak from her injury. She waits patiently for Look and Whitley to wake up so she and Look could tell their story about the files. She wasn't sure if Look had even saw them, but he knew the story nonetheless. See sat down and wrapped Whitley's coat around herself. She looked at Whitley and smiled a little, she never liked to show how she felt about anything, but she thought he was remarkably handsome. She was only 21 and Whitley was obviously older than her, but for living in the wastes he was quite a looker. She looked away as they both started to rustle their sheets.

Look rubbed at his eyes and began to sit up after rolling around in his cot a bit more. He immediately hits his head on the grocery shelf. "Dammit!" he shouts, disregarding those sleeping. He lays back down and rubs his head. Whitley opens his eyes, woken up from Look's early-morning catastrophe. He looks around for See and finds her behind him, sitting on the counter. He enters a state of panic and curiosity and frantically asks about the files. See laughs. "Relax," she says, "I'll tell you in a bit, Look should probably tell the story with me." Look rolled over and groaned in disagreement. He lifted his head, avoiding the shelf, and rose from his cot. Whitley started organizing his things and prepared for their departure if See was able to leave today.

"You seem to be doing well for just getting shot." Whitley remarks towards See.

"I'm alright, it's not like this hasn't happened before. The world is filled with insane and greedy survivors, people will kill for a glass of water." See replies.

"So, what's with these files?"

"Well, I know you said you worked for them earlier, but how much do you really know about the Enclave?"

"Almost everything is a secret there, my dear. I was barely allowed to have my own terminal and I was considered a very important person back there."

"Well, we talked about how we were from Little Lamplight, but we didn't tell you we were born into the Enclave. Our parents were said to have died in some freak accident or something. The Enclave found us decided they would use us as guinea pigs. They probably never told you about the experiments they did on humans, but there were far too many."

"They made us do all sorts of insane experiments," Look chimes in, "they put chemicals on our skin, cut us open, even messed with our brains. We were finally released and brought to Lamplight when we were around seven. They tried to make us forget, but the memories seep through."

"That's not what I'm getting at, Look," See replies, "I saw the birth certificates and I wanted them because I don't think our parents are dead. I want to find them, and I want to stop the Enclave before they start."

"You don't understand how many member there are in the Enclave, See. There is probably a good chance your parents are alive still, but what use is it twenty years later?" Whitley retorts.

"I want to know what really happened. What I do remember from our childhood barely makes sense, I just have to figure it out. I want to find our parents."

"I doubt you can stop the Enclave either, they are planning to leave their hiding places soon and it will probably take the entire Brotherhood to stop them. They want something, and when they want something, they get something."

"We can at least try, can't we?"

"He's right, See, it's a suicide mission if we try and stop them. I think you're still pretty tired, maybe you should take a nap before we go out on the road again. Are we even going out on the road again?" Look asks at the other side of the store, slipping on a new shirt.

"Well the wound was not that bad, she did lose quite a bit of blood though. I think we'll be alright if she wants to leave yet." Whitley replies while cleaning dust off of ED-E.

"Oh I'm fine, let's go. Just walk slow, okay?" See says enthusiastically. She locates the files and places them in her pack. They prepare the rest of their things and abandon the old grocery store.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Chapter Eight- 3/27/13-_**

Grant's eyes fluttered open. She found herself in a rather dark room with dim orange and blue lights against the walls. The small bed she was sleeping had a small yellow light dangling above her head. Her eyes had trouble adjusting to the dim lights and she couldn't make out where she was. She guessed she blacked out again and was in the nurse's office again. Amy had trouble sleeping the last few nights and would often black out. The nurses had told her it was perfectly normal under the amount of stress she is, so she did not worry.

She gathered her strength and pushed herself off of the bed. Grant looked about the room and noticed something very odd, the bed was in the middle of the room. The bed was also not an ordinary bed, but a surgical bed. The intercom buzzed on and a noise blistered through the room. Grant fell to the ground instantly.

"We've been walking forever, Whitley, why don't we stop at that bar we passed and take a break or something." See complained as they trudged on.

"No, we're almost to this abandoned house I was told about, we can rest there for the night and you can finally have a look at those files." Whitley replied.

"There was a nice hotel back there too, come on, I don't see the hurt in turning around." Look joined in.

"I think there are people still looking for me, I don't want to risk it."

"What did you even do anyways?"

"People don't take too kindly to you when you are their best scientist and run off with their best tech because you had different opinions."

"Oh. Well why Navarro? What's even there?"

"People who will take care of ED-E. His armor is outdated but the methods we were using on the robots were absurd. This is the only way I can keep him safe and get him the armor."

"Why do you always refer to it as a he? It's a robot, not a person. It can't even think!" See bursts.

Whitley stared at See with his mouth open. She didn't understand, they never understand. He looks at ED-E and ED-E looks back.

"You don't know how intelligent he is, See. He's like a child. He can't speak, but he can see and hear. He was programmed for combat just like the other eyebots, but his prototype was slightly different. He had a better sense of perception than the others, I also used to catch him hanging around my television a lot. I turned it on one day to see how he would react and he just hovered over the couch and watched. Sometimes when Grant would tell a joke he would beep and move his shoulders like he was laughing. He was so much smarter than the other eyebots and seemed to really enjoy human things. I feel like he is a person, they all are really."

Look and See had concerned expressions on their faces, but they nodded and said "alright." They all walked in silence for a few moments. It was always hot in the wastes, but the closer they got to the deserts that were already deserts before the war the heat skyrocketed. Look pointed out a house not too far off that they were approaching. It was old and musty, but they decided it would do for the night.

Look and See reloaded their shotguns and Whitley took out his pistol. Look commented on how he thought someone was inside, but they still proceeded on. Whitley opened the door as silently as he could and held his pistol steady. See stops him before he steps inside and undoes the tripwire connected to a block of C4. "Well we're obviously not the first ones in here," Look remarked with a nervous chuckle. Whitley wipes a bead of sweat from under his musty brown hair and steps inside. A rotting smell came over them and skeletons scattered the floor. David notices the corpse of a woman and a small boy to the left. The walls were covered in smudged graffiti written in dark brown dried blood.

See covers her mouth with her hand and starts to read the writing on the wall aloud. "The world is on fire, and so is my head, but what does it matter when we're already dead?" See wears a face of confusion as she looks over all of the words in blood. Whitley stops examining the bodies and goes over to the bookshelf with Look. He has a particular book out and glances at Whitley as he walks over. "Who's 'So crates?'" Look asks curiously. Whitley reads the title of the book and gives and annoyed glare at Look. "It's Socrates, Look." he corrects.

"Take my hand, take my gun, we're all going to hell, son," See reads aloud from the walls again. "This shit is weird." she comments in a slightly scared voice as she turns to walks into the kitchen. David and Look are preoccupied with selecting books while a small yelp comes from the kitchen area. A wooden arrow pierces through the door to the left of Whitley. He turns and finds a girl with a knife pointed at see in one hand and a bow in the other. The girl looks fairly young, with short light brown hair, wide green eyes, and an odd red crescent moon tattoo around her left eye with a blue circle underneath. She smiles smugly and narrows her eyes.

"So what brings you folks here?" she remarks, placing her arm with the knife over See's shoulder, the knife pointed near her throat.

"Oh just a little traveling, what about yourself?" Whitley replies as he puts his pistol back in his holster.

"Oh, come on, I don't want to hurt all of you, but I was here first, so this is my loot."

"Whoa, we're not scavengers," Look laughs and relaxes his shotgun on top of his shoulders and walks around the house slowly.

"What are you three, then?"

"We're looking for a cheap place to sleep and trying to find a courier so we can hike it back to D.C. sooner."

"Courier, for what?"

"That's a lot of questions coming from a girl who hasn't even said her name yet. We got to transport this robot over to California. We heard Mojave's the nearest outpost, so we're trying to get out of this wasteland and get to the Mojave already."

"Well I know a courier in town if you want to come meet him. I'm Veran Thaos, but who are you?"

"Well, Karen, I'm Look, that's See you have right by that lovely knife of yours, and this here is Dave."

"It's David actually, but I'm usually just called Whitley." Whitley corrects Look while giving him a hateful glance.

"It's Veran, V-E-R-A-N. Sounds like Karen, but with a V." Veran says as she eases her grip on See.

"Where'd you get a name like that?" Whitley smiles and asks curiously.

"I've lived with many different sorts of people, my name sort of adapted to it. So do you want to meet Jack or not?"

"Who's Jack?"

"The courier, he's a chemist that owns a motel room about a half-mile back. He's a courier on the side, and he's quite the looker. Just don't ask about his eye because he won't tell you."

"Well let's go meet him." Look says cheerfully as he opens the door of the small shack again.


End file.
